NEBELNEST

Dark, brooding and ominous instrumental prog from France , severely disturbing the senses with oblique arrangements, slurping bass, shrieking guitar ornamentations, hissing synths gone haywire and swaths of mellotron adding only to the maelstrom. This is how the improvisational "Pooks Part1" opens the ball! My goodness, what sonic savagery do we have here? "Shafoo" refines the brutality a bit, providing a leaner platform for the growling Gregory Tejedor bass to propel the music inexorably forward merging with the drenching megatron working its usual magical charm, manned by his brother Olivier. Axeman Cyril Malderez flings some brisk sonic perversions that clearly suggest various forms of manic insanity, Frippoid revolutions dancing over his 6 strings. The demented fuzz organ solo will woo the Canterbury crowd with its devious connotations. "Nahja" segues nicely into more introspective zones, playing the classic King Crimson Red period card, where apparent calm can explode into sudden seductive frenzy. Drummer extraordinaire Michel Anselmi certainly can bang, rattle and pummel with the best of them, as he eggs on the matador spirit in both Gregory and Olivier's playing. The seedy guitar foray is invigorating and rages scornfully, while the others follow with glee. The colossal "Etude de Shimshot" is a prime example of their experimental folly, a 9 minute binge loaded with spirited initial sonics (astounding sounds, weird effects, remindful of a War of the Worlds sci-fi movie), far from any kind of commercial or popular banner waving, with Anselmi leading them again into a flurry of jamming prowess, as all members rage in apparent unison. The keyboard/guitar dissonance is nevertheless held together by the exceptionally tight rhythm section, colliding the senses with organizational confusion (hence the correct RIO and Krautrock allusions by other PA reviewers). What is this, space, jam, groove, heavy or symph? Really they are an amalgamation of all kinds of prog genres, thus relaying the reputations of past glory boys such as Shylock, Arachnoid, Gong and Hawkwind. "Uncertain Journey" is listed as another improv, very much in the Crimsoid tradition (the brilliant "We'll Let You Know" as well as all the live explorations as heard on the amazing KC "The Great Deceiver" 4CD set) with Anselmi doing his best Bill Bruford imitation (no mean feat!) and some serious knob persecution on the assorted devices (sax, trumpet and brass samples, I presume) by Olivier Tejedor. The humorously titled "Sollilock" is more controlled, slightly upbeat and even jazzy in a Soft Machinesque sort of spirit, groovy bass melding with hairy keyboard roamings, while the guitar circles overhead like a ravenous buzzard, pecking and picking at the bones. The next one is another 9 minute "audio-gymnastics" display, vividly conveying the lethal pleasure of "Absinthe", that still forbidden elixir/drug that likes to trick the mind. The nuclear bass is almost verging on zeuhl, a definite Paga/Top vibe, as it spins in various controlled directions, a bobbing beacon that sets an incredible platform for the menacing soloists to hallucinate on, the fret board getting a resounding beating in particular. Beastly classic track, I say! A gentle piano mid section only further confounds the issue and upends the flow. "Crab Nebula" is also the inspiration for the spooky cover art, a sinuous steamroller that insidiously creeps into the furthest realms of the audio-brain, almost "prog-space-punk", as the rhythm is quite simple yet angry, in a way. This is definitely more in tune with the harsher, no quarter given elements in music: insistent, hypnotic, bold and devastating with tremendous skill expressed by the "quatuor". "Pooks Part 2" bookends this masterful debut, with some more improvisational mayhem, a glimpse into what these boys can do on a stage, and if so, look out for the smoke and the fire! Nasty, nearly gruesome, often weird but ultimately very satisfying, this French band will go places. Ca chauffe! 4.5 cloudy aeries.